By most measures, the energy industry in the Pittsburgh region is growing at a faster pace than many other economic sectors.

That’s notwithstanding a recent slowdown in Marcellus Shale drilling activity — a response to stubbornly low natural gas prices — and stunted growth of the region’s largest nuclear company, Westinghouse, which has offered early retirements and some layoffs in recent months due to Fukushima and low gas prices swaying utilities toward considering natural gas-powered power plants instead of new nuclear.

Still, according to data from the Allegheny Conference on Economic Development, the energy industry makes up about 16 percent of the region’s economy. Its 1,000 or so companies, which employ around 41,000 people, have a $19 billion economic impact on southwestern Pennsylvania. Many of them continue to grow and hire.

Dennis Yablonsky, CEO of Allegheny Conference, boiled down Pittsburgh’s energy future to three factors: workforce, innovation and the use of natural gas.

While energy employment is a bright spot in the economy, the growing industry is anticipating some challenges in finding qualified workers for high-skilled jobs such as mechanical and electrical engineers, machinists, welders, installers and real estate managers, according to a Conference survey of 37 area energy firms.

The study, released in September, found that these companies plan to add 7,000 workers to their payrolls by 2020, and expect that more than a quarter of the positions will be difficult to fill. Extrapolating these findings to all 1,000 energy companies creates a critical need for education and training.

“We’ve got to get out in front of that,” Yablonsky said. “That’s going to take a sustained effort over a period of years.”

Innovation will come easier, given Pittsburgh’s strong universities and the area’s interest in finding solutions to burn and extract coal and gas more cleanly.

Don Shields, executive director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Energy, said that companies are increasingly partnering with the university to apply for federal grants for energy research. And they continue to use the school as a workforce pipeline.

Companies such as FirstEnergy, Westinghouse, Consol Energy Inc. and Eaton Corp. hire many of the graduates coming out of Pitt’s engineering programs, while firms such as Shell have become more active recruiters as their presence in the area increases, Shields said.

One of the area’s biggest challenges and opportunities is finding markets for the region’s natural gas bounty.

“There’s ongoing national interest in how we use natural gas,” Yablonsky said. “Obviously, more and more (will be used for) generation of electricity. Then there’s the whole reshoring of manufacturing” to take advantage of the low-cost fuel.

The most prominent example of energy’s trickle-down effect in Pittsburgh is the proposed ethane cracker currently under study by Royal Dutch Shell. The petrochemical giant, whose exploration and development arm is drilling for gas in the Marcellus, is looking at a Beaver County site to build a world-scale processing plant for natural gas liquids that would produce a feedstock for the chemical industry. It would be the first such facility in the area, and it is estimated it would bring with it billions of dollars in investment along with thousands of jobs.

On a smaller scale, three natural gas power plants are in various stages of development in southwestern Pennsylvania, and the region’s largest utility, FirstEnergy Corp., is entertaining the idea of burning gas along with coal at its coal plants.

But Pittsburgh’s biggest energy boom is also a hindrance to some of the region’s other energy developments, including the development of renewable fuels, which has been stunted by the low price of gas.

Renewable development in the region — both installation of wind and solar technologies and their manufacturing here — has slowed, Yablonsky said, partly in response to expiring federal incentives that drove these technologies to the market, and partly because of competition with gas.

Still, the region’s green credentials are significant.

Western Pennsylvania has established its place among the top cities for LEED-certified buildings.

“I think we lead the way here in terms of forward thinking, other, even more progressive standards,” said Mike Schiller, CEO of the Green Building Alliance.

And downtown Pittsburgh, the region’s business brain, is now part of a campaign to halve energy use and emissions by 2030. About 24 million square feet, or 40 percent of Downtown real estate, is participating in the effort.

“There’s a momentum of effort that is moving the city forward, and I think in a grassroots, non-mandated, non-regulated way, Pittsburgh is doing so many things that are going to make us competitive in the next decade,” Schiller said.